KATHMANDU: Nepal on Thursday launched a drive to eradicate polio by supplementing oral vaccines with an injection that experts said would boost children’s immunity against the disease.

The impoverished Himalayan nation has experienced intermittent success with its oral vaccine-focused campaign, as new cases have turned up every few years, most recently in 2010, when the outbreak was blamed on cross-border transmissions from India.

Since the oral vaccine contains a weakened form of the live polio virus that can cause infections, experts have called for it to be supplemented and eventually replaced with the injection, which is already used in dozens of developed countries. The new rollout will target underdeveloped and developing countries, where the oral vaccine has long been the exclusive choice, being cheaper, easier and quicker to administer.

Published in Dawn, September 19th, 2014